Helen Mirren, 78, looks striking in an elegant close-up as she says her garden makes her a ‘better’ actress and has stripped her of ‘ego and insecurity’
- Dame Helen says getting her hands dirty is ‘meditative’ and it ‘cleans’ her brain
She’s got an Oscar, a Tony and five Emmys to her name but the one thing that keeps Dame Helen Mirren down to earth – her garden.
The British actress, 78, said that gardening has made her a ‘better’ actress and has stripped her of ‘ego and insecurity’ as you can’t control nature.
Dame Helen, who splits her time between her homes in London and Lake Tahoe, US, said she finds getting her hands dirty ‘meditative’ and thinks it helps ‘clean’ her brain.
‘I think gardening probably helps me be a better actor,’ she told DuJour magazine.
‘It kind of cleans your brain. You can’t have an ego with a garden. The f****** plant just won’t grow where you want it to grow.
Dame Helen Mirren, 78, said that gardening has made her a ‘better’ actress and has stripped her of ‘ego and insecurity’
The British actress told DuJour magazine ‘gardening probably helps me be a better actor. It kind of cleans your brain. You can’t have an ego with a garden’
‘It’s good for an actor to have the cobwebs and ego and insecurity go away for a little.’
Dame Helen said that she gardens alongside husband Taylor Hackford, to whom she’s been married for 25 years, and they split the jobs they have to do.
READ MORE: Dame Helen Mirren says criticism of her decision to play late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir is ‘utterly legitimate’
‘It’s a huge body of knowledge which I don’t have and I’m always trying to add to,’ she said.
‘The beauty of nature is so fantastic. It’s wonderful to watch something grow that you’ve taken a cutting of.
‘My husband is a tree person, and I’m bushes and flowers. It’s a classic division of labour. It’s amazing to see trees we’ve planted.’
Dame Helen wore a number of dramatic outfits for the magazine shoot, including a metallic silver trench coat and sunglasses, a red leather coat and a tailored grey pinstripe suit.
Dame Helen, who plays former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the forthcoming film Golda, has faced some criticism for being a non-Jew playing a Jewish person.
She previously told the Daily Mail that controversy surrounding her casting was ‘utterly legitimate’ and was a question she’d raised with director Guy Nattiv prior to filming.
The actress, who wears facial prosthetics for the role, admitted that they were entering ‘dangerous territory’ with the make-up, but hopes they got it right.
Dame Helen wore a number of dramatic outfits for the magazine shoot, including a metallic silver trench coat and sunglasses, a red leather coat and a tailored grey pinstripe suit
Dame Helen, who plays former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the forthcoming film Golda, has faced some criticism for being a non-Jew playing a Jewish person
The actress, who wears facial prosthetics for the role, admitted that they were entering ‘dangerous territory’ with the make-up, but hopes they got it right
Dame Helen wearing a tailored grey pinstriped suit. She was posing for DuJour’s Fall print issue
‘We went through various manifestations; going further, taking pieces away,’ she said.
‘Eventually we got to a point where we felt it was sufficient but hopefully not too much.
‘With that sort of make-up, you’re wandering into dangerous territory. Obviously, it’s there and you can’t say it’s not there.’
Referring to her recent role in western series 1923, she added: ‘On the other hand, the audience knows I’m not an Irish woman living in Montana.’ She said of playing Ms Meir: ‘I’ve never done anything like that before. It was an adventure.
‘I got so used to being that person in the daytime that when the make-up all came off and I saw myself as I am, I’d forgotten that was what I looked like.
‘It’s that acting thing-am I becoming her or is she becoming me? There’s a picture the crew made of me and Golda, and we’re in identical outfits.
‘She’s turning to me and saying something, and I’m looking forward with a cigarette. It’s really powerful.’
Bradley Cooper came under fire last week when a trailer for his new film Maestro showed him wearing a prosthetic nose to play Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein, with many saying it was perpetuating Jewish stereotypes.
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